The winners of the 75th National Book Awards were announced and honored last night in a gala event in New York City, hosted by Kate McKinnon and featuring musician Jon Batiste. The event was a mix of the usual celebration of reading and books and authors and the industry, as well as an acknowledgement of so many storm clouds in the country and the world.
The winners:
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| Percival Everett | |
Fiction: James by Percival Everett (Doubleday)
Percival Everett said in part, "Two weeks ago, I was feeling pretty low, and to tell the truth, I still feel pretty low. And as I look out at this--so much excitement about books--I have to say I do feel some hope. But it's important to remember hope really is no substitute for strategy." Noting that "James has been nicely received in the U.S.," Everett thanked many people, including his "two teenaged sons... whose near complete apathy about my career helps me keep things in perspective."
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| Jason De Leon | |
Nonfiction: Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling by Jason De León (Viking Books)
Jason De León called his prize-winning book "a janky little anthropological project about a bunch of banged-up and beaten-up down people who refused to give up hope, and it all started with [a kid] who said to me, 'How come no one listens to us?' I wish that he was here today because then he'd get a kick out of the fact that people are listening to his words now. This award is for him... and everyone out there in the migrant culture who is trying to make ends meet and trying to do the right thing while keeping hope alive."
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| Lena Khalaf Tuffaha | |
Poetry: Something About Living by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (University of Akron Press)
Decrying the "American-funded" war in Gaza, Lena Khalaf Tuffaha noted that her father "was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, in 1938. He sat me down at age five and told me about the homeland he couldn't live in anymore, and that story has carried me through my entire life, has driven me, has motivated me. I'm proud to stand here today and to accept this honor as a Palestinian-American on behalf of all the deeply beautiful Palestinians that this world has lost and in honor of all those miraculous ones who endure, waiting, waiting for us to wake up."
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| Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King | |
Translated Literature: Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King (Graywolf Press)
In remarks translated by Lin King, Yáng Shuāng-zǐ said in part, "For more than a century, Taiwan has never stopped facing the threat of invasion from another powerful nation [first Japan, now China]. Meanwhile, Taiwanese have a complicated relationship to our own national and ethnic identities. Some of us still identify as Chinese, just as some of us used to identify as Japanese. I write in order to answer the question of what is a Taiwanese person. I write about Taiwan's past as a step into its future."
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| Shifa Saltagi Safadi | |
Young People's Literature: Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi (Putnam Books for Young Readers)
Among many others, Shifa Saltagi Safadi thanked her parents "for always believing in me. They came from Syria to give us a better life. It was a struggle, with a new culture and language, and they showed us what it looked like to be strong, proud Muslims. I wouldn't be who I am without my parents." She also thanked "the Muslim authors who stepped forward first and paved the way for me to be inspired to follow my dream of writing. I would not have had the bravery of writing my first words if I had not seen Muslim books on the shelf. I would never have believed I could do it if I had not read the words of the people before me who showed me what it looks like."
In addition, Barbara Kingsolver was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and W. Paul Coates was presented with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. Both awards were announced in September.
(photos courtesy National Book Foundation)